Possibility
E.g. Her father was often to be seen in the bar of the Hotel Metropole.
Where is he to be found?
Nothing was to be done under the circumstances.
Responsibilities and obligations possessed by the Soviet trade unions are to be envied. (Morning Star)
In this meaning to be to is equivalent to can or may. It is used in all kinds of sentences in the present and past tenses and is followed by the passive infinitive.
Here are some examples taken from the literary works:
‘Tell him to go to sleep’. – ‘She says you’re to go to sleep’. (D.H. Lawrence).
I could scarcely see her in the darkness, but when I rose to go – it was plain that I was not to linger – she stood in the orange light from the doorway. (F Scott Fitzgerald)
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